Thatched house on the border

Portnahinch €225k

South of Lanesboro in Co Longford the River Shannon widens out into Lough Ree. The river and the lake also form the boundary between counties Longford and Roscommon, which means you can look across the water not only at a different county but at a different province.

South of Lanesboro in Co Longford the River Shannon widens out into Lough Ree. The river and the lake also form the boundary between counties Longford and Roscommon, which means you can look across the water not only at a different county but at a different province.

One good vantage point for pondering that view would be in the townland of Portnahinch, on the Roscommon side.

This detached cottage on the western shores of the lake is just inside the province of Connacht, with just over a kilometre of water separating it from Leinster.

It's on 1.1 acres of grounds with direct access to the water, so you could push a boat out from your own garden and investigate another province. The lake is a popular spot for angling and boating.

The sitting room with a hardwood staircase to first floor

Although it may look like an old thatched cottage, it was built only in 2002, but designed in homage to traditional vernacular architecture. There's nothing traditional about the floor area though, as it measures 1,870 sq ft.

That includes three bedrooms - one on the ground floor and two upstairs, both of them with vaulted timber ceilings and exposed beams.

There are two main living areas on the ground floor. One is a sitting room just under 21ft by 17ft, dual-aspect and with a solid-fuel stove in the fireplace. The other is the kitchen and dining room, where there's another solid-fuel stove and French doors to a deck in the garden.

From here it's about a 10-minute drive to Lanesboro and about the same distance in the opposite direction to Roscommon Town. You can join the M6 motorway outside Athlone, about 35 kilometres away, getting you to Dublin in about two hours.

The agent is Property Partners Earley (0906) 626579 and the asking price is €225,000.